LA Kings Need Specific Upgrade Amidst Playoff Chase

The Los Angeles Kings are barely holding down a playoff spot in the West and have only won three of their past 10 games. Fortunately right now, the West is much weaker than the East in terms of the wildcard spots. Regardless, the Kings have to take one last swing at the playoffs with Anze Kopitar and need center depth to do it.

Kopitar and Quinton Byfield hold down the top two lines, but Alex Turcotte and Samuel Helenius have been thrust into larger roles even though their ice time is very low. Turcotte is now centering the third line and his average ice time this season is under 10 minutes. He also only has two goals and six points in 37 games. He's flanked by Kevin Fiala and Andre Kuzmenko to boost the line.

A similar thing is happening on the fourth line. Helenius has no points and is averaging under six minutes per game in 11 games this season. He is centering Corey Perry and Joel Armia. There are no problems on the wings, but Helenius is a fringe NHL player at 23 years old and Turcotte is a bit over his head on the third line with strong wingers.

With Phillip Danault gone, it really exposed the center of the ice for the Kings. They have $10 million to work with this season and ideally, would be adding someone that is signed past this season too. Not only do the Kings have to think about this season where their center depth is poor, it's going to get even worse next year without Kopitar and more teams will be able to make moves in the offseason to target players the Kings will be looking at.

Veterans like Brayden Schenn or Ryan Strome would be options, with Strome being one of their last resorts to go out and get. But if the Kings can't trust all of their players, they aren't going to get very far. After being a playoff team for a number of years and going nowhere, there's two paths - keep doing what they've been doing (not enough), or go for it. Drew Doughty is older, they don't know how much longer Darcy Kuemper has at a high level, and Kopitar is retiring.

There are some players to build around, but not often are teams able to pull what the Washington Capitals did and completely revamp their team to a successful season and beyond. That isn't likely to happen to the Kings and they need immediate help so the new addition(s) can be acclimated.